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National Roundtable

  • Milan
    • 8 June 2015
     
     

    From obstacle to opportunity: how European institutions can help businesses and improve the job market

      We need a new way of narrating Europe. We need it above all to counter the populist drift that has made anti-Europeanism its motto.  Data provided by the Eurobarometer, the instrument measuring the belief of European citizens in the idea of Europe, shows that the vision of the founding fathers is in free fall. In 2008, 75% of Italian citizens were strongly convinced that the European project was a good thing, while today there is a risk that this percentage will drop below 50%.

    • Cesano Maderno (MB)
      • 12 October 2015
       
       

      Focusing on Italy’s industrial sector and on foreign investment: policies and tools

        The chief thrust of discussions at this national roundtable was that Italy’s manufacturing base has demonstrated a great capacity for responding and adapting, even though the continuing economic crisis has seen a major industrial downsize. Indeed, between 2008 and 2014, the number of Italian firms fell by about 47,000, a drop primarily involving small and medium-sized firms, while manufacturing potential as a whole shrank by 18%.

      • Milan
        • 16 November 2015
         
         

        Beating the crisis: Italy’s manufacturing renaissance

          Running through discussions at this national roundtable was the acknowledgement that the opportunities offered by the technological revolution currently in progress pose a challenge for Italy, namely: that of deploying innovation to preserve the nation’s position as the second largest manufacturing country in Europe.

        • Rome
          • 16 April 2014
           
           

          Preventing, insuring and managing natural disasters

            Discussions at this National Roundtable session opened with the observation that, due to its natural characteristics and anthropological factors, Italy may be considered as being exposed to a high level of disaster risk. As a preliminary step towards putting the phenomenon in context, the participants felt it useful to cite a number of statistics. Since 1900, earthquakes have caused around 160,000 deaths in Italy, while since the Second World War alone, there have been 1,061 lethal landslides, and at least 672 fatal floods.

          • Rome
            • 10 July 2014
             
             

            The “abuse of rights” in public finance administration and tax law

              Discussions at this National Roundtable commenced with a reference to the old cartographic practice of marking unknown and dangerous lands with the expression “Hic sunt leones”. It was suggested that, today, the same could be done if charting a hypothetical map of business taxation in Italy: an insidious terra incognita in which that peculiar invention of the judiciary known as “abuse of rights” generates confusion and uncertainty.

            • Rome
              • 24 September 2014
               
               

              Reforming Italy’s public administration to spur competitiveness

                The participants at this National Roundtable viewed as telling that in the nigh-on seventy-year history of the Italian Republic, there have been several instances of eminent figures such as Guido Carli expressing grave concerns regarding the state of the country’s public administration. Today, after a protracted period characterized by a lack of continuity in the political and governmental helmsmanship of the state apparatus, the prevailing sense is that of an institutional and procedural milieu bereft of political leadership.

              • Milan
                • 20 January 2014
                 
                 

                “Mediacracy”: how media and politics interact

                  The participants at this national roundtable noted that, since its very beginnings, the story of the media has been interwoven with power (and the ability to call it to account). This was the case of the first gazettes to emerge in the seventeenth century in various European cities, though it was felt that other crucial milestones on this journey are also worth remembering, such as Voltaire’s “Treatise on Tolerance“, which, through an indictment not at all far removed from that of modern media campaigns, achieved important results for eighteenth-century French society.

                • Milan
                  • 24 November 2014
                   
                   

                  Economic crises in a globalized world: new ways to finance businesses

                    Setting the backdrop for discussions at this National Roundtable session were the latest global liquidity indicators produced by the Bank for International Settlements, according to which credit at a global level is in abundant supply, risk appetite is strengthening, and credit conditions are loosening. This, again pursuant to the Bank for International Settlements, is favoring the growth of debt issuance and loans over bank-intermediated cross-border funding. The private equity sector has also been picking up since 2013.

                  • Roma
                    • 22 January 2014
                     
                     

                    Suggestions for Italy’s spending review

                      This national roundtable discussion got underway with the observation that at the heart of Italy’s spending review is the idea of reducing expenditure for the purpose of rebalancing public finances or achieving other priority objectives such as alleviating the tax burden – a concept which, in reality, is not entirely new in Italy. Indeed, soon after the unification of the Kingdom of Italy, the Historical Right (to which Sella belonged) was engaged in a process of rationalizing expenditure with a view to balancing the budget.

                    • Milan
                      • 3 February 2014
                       
                       

                      Artists and artisans: the excellence of “Made in Italy”

                        The debate at this national roundtable got underway with the observation that tapping into knowledge that has always existed in Italy to revive Italian arts and crafts industries is a key priority for the country given that, in the current difficult climate, they could serve as important drivers of economic development and growth. It was noted that there is a peculiar symbiosis in Italy between the manufacturing industry and arts and crafts.

                      • Rome
                        • 19 March 2014
                         
                         

                        Of virtue and necessity: privatization to spur growth in Italy

                          Proceedings at this national roundtable got underway with participants observing that Italy periodically looks to privatization as a means to restoring the fragile fortunes of its public finances. Yet while the increasingly straitened condition of these finances is what gives rise, from time to time, to the need to engage in such sell-offs, privatization cannot and should not merely entail a quick grab for cash. Indeed, the roundtable saw a number of different aspects of privatization discussed.

                        • Rome
                          • 21 May 2014
                           
                           

                          How the audiovisual industry can stimulate economic and cultural growth in Europe

                            Conservation vs. change, protection vs. openness, and domestic focus vs. global reach: these juxtapositions prompted participants at this national roundtable to highlight that a cursory examination of the public debate over the prospects of the Italian audiovisual industry would seem to reflect – if not reduce it to – a simplistic dichotomy between old and new market players.

                          • Milan
                            • 9 June 2014
                             
                             

                            The Italian luxury goods industry: cultural and manufacturing aspects

                              The participants at this national roundtable noted, by way of opening premise, that the luxury and high-end markets represent a worldwide business worth 730 billion dollars. The sub-segment of personal luxury goods – valued at 230 billion dollars – sees Italy and France as joint market leaders, each having a share worth more than 50 billion dollars.

                            • Milan
                              • 20 October 2014
                               
                               

                              Helping Italian SMEs compete on global markets

                                Kick-starting this national roundtable event was the observation that the question of the competitiveness of Italian firms in global markets can be summed up in the indisputable if somewhat simplified proposition that while exports alone are not enough to get by on, they are nevertheless vital for survival. It was noted that the longstanding issue of the internationalization of Italian SMEs has been a subject of public debate for decades, in parallel with the escalation of globalization and the technological revolution.

                              • Milan
                                • 3 November 2014
                                 
                                 

                                How important is big data for business and society?

                                  320 times greater than the store of knowledge kept in the legendary Library of Alexandria, and representing a mass of data which, if stored on DVDs stacked on top of each other, would cover five times the distance from the Earth to the Moon and back again: it was in these terms that participants at this national roundtable described the wealth of knowledge that forms the preserve of contemporary man, and which, evocative analogies aside, comprises the extraordinary body of information commonly known as big data.

                                • Milan
                                  • 4 November 2013
                                   
                                   

                                  Does Italy’s important industrial sector still have a future?

                                    Participants at this roundtable session were of a consensus that Italy still has an effective industrial system, and may continue to do so as long as a major restructure is undertaken so as to provide a boost for a great swathe of firms that are currently wavering between the boon of opportunities offered by global growth and the risk of being marginalized.

                                  • Rome
                                    • 17 April 2013
                                     
                                     

                                    Electoral reform for Italy

                                      In this national roundtable session devoted to examining the nature of electoral reform required in Italy, the opening premise to the discussions was that modern debate on this issue primarily hinges on a straightforward question, namely: does the state of the electorate directly mirror the prevailing electoral system, or does the latter have little impact on the outcome of elections and associated divisions within the electorate?

                                    • Rome
                                      • 13 November 2013
                                       
                                       

                                      Modernizing Italy’s public administration for people and business

                                        It was noted at this national roundtable discussion that, according to the two most well-known systems for measuring the level of economic freedom existing in a country, the extent to which public authorities function well is a fundamental indicator of the same. Similarly, it is widely acknowledged that in countries where the functioning of the public administration meets the expectations of citizens, people can even be amenable to a high level of taxation.

                                      • Rome
                                        • 18 September 2013
                                         
                                         

                                        Italy’s welfare system: living with risk

                                          At this roundtable session dealing with the future of Italy’s welfare system, the participants observed that tackling the issue of risk management requires the resolution of an evident paradox, namely, that while the risks to which households and firms are exposed are becoming greater in number and increasingly serious, the public resources needed to address them are in ever more limited supply.

                                        • Rome
                                          • 23 October 2013
                                           
                                           

                                          Charity and the global economy: in search of a new model

                                            Discussions at this national roundtable session got underway with the opening premise that the economic crisis and its social consequences have profoundly called into question the prevailing economic paradigm – a model based on competitive individualism, maximizing the profit of the individual, and an “invisible hand” regulating the market. The result is that the idea of the common interest merely being the sum of individual interests no longer seems sustainable in the current economic and social climate.